Girl Genius

Hm... I still think the Beast is going to be subdued rather than destroyed, for the moment.

Humongulus could be important. I keep thinking of him as more in need of being evacuated for his own safety (and everybody else's if they're trying to starve the train), simply because he's a source of metal parts, but his strength and destructive abilities were set up.

I'm not sure Agatha noticed the Dreen — if so she played it super cool or I'm forgetting something — so I lean toward it being a complication rather than a key to her plan.

edited 5th Mar '15 4:18:32 AM by Schefflera

I'm about 90% positive that nobody except the Wasp Eater even noticed the Dreen was there.

This is adorable and cool. That is all.

And important. Don't forget that.

Poor Cheyenne. Those super-detailed, super-busy battle scenes handed to him at the last moment must be driving him nuts. I bet he'll need a vacation after this story arc.

What they don't mention is why it's important, namely that it's eighty feet long and breaths fire.

Wow, did they really just post the comic? I hope everything's alright.

I am suddenly reminded, again, that Agatha's locket is made of metal...

I suspect the Foglios have gotten themselves overloaded with work.

As for the strip, seems likely the Bears will step in at this point..

Or that Dreen in the basement gets involved. They've been established as being incredibly powerful.

edited 7th Mar '15 4:00:07 AM by Geoduck

Obligatory finely-crafted link.

Well, I'm agreeing with using the bears as a possible solution. Either that, or everybody needs to get nekkid ASAP, and I don't think we're ready for a new run on XXXenophile just yet...

edited 7th Mar '15 12:18:46 AM by Pyrite

Something non-metallic, obviously,and I agree. The bears are probably the answer rather than the Dreen. They, after all, are on site. The Dreen is still in the basement. Unless, of course, Agatha's key fits in here someplace.

The train appears to destroy the metal objects it takes pretty quickly and use them as raw materials — I'll be surprised if the locket is destroyed at this point, but it would certainly keep things interesting. Or maybe the train will grab and recognize it as a genuine family trilobite or something.

This is an interesting development, too. The vulnerability of metal on their persons seemed like an obvious concern when they were approaching the train, which I assumed they figured they had to live with and try to compensate for, but after it didn't do anything with it for this long, I wasn't expecting it now. I'm impressed! Also, I see it's gone from little pincer arms to big stompy forefeet.

The bears are a possibility, though they might find this train harder to tip. The Sparkhunds might be able to shed their armor, although that seems more difficult if its being held still than simply drawn in a given direction. But after the setup I'm still expecting Vi to be key. Maybe she already did it? Or maybe she set her knives down somewhere to help avoid its notice?

I am also intrigued by the train's line in the final panel. Well, why ARE you planning to leave your enemies alive if you don't have to, train? Admittedly a couple of Saturn's other creations had the habit, but I don't think that was his doing!

Agatha was on her way to Paris before all of this, right?

Because according to Gil you can buy devices to rapidly vaporise base metals in Paris. They look almost identical to devices to strip performing artists against their will.

...That is also an interesting point.

From what Tweedle said I suspect that this must be taking a lot of power on Chew-Chew's part. I suspect it can't keep it up for long.

Schefflera: Re: Saturn(us) and the Beast's lack of overt lethality. It's interesting to note that before he finally reached the breaking point and decided to kill Bill and William and start over (so far only mentioned in the third novel) everything we've heard about the man has him, in his horrible Sparky old-school Heterodyne way, trying to be helpful. He gave the Corbittites a fancy train. During a bad winter, he set fire to the Mechanicsburg town hall and kept it burning for months. The novel also says that he genuinely loved his noble wife; I propose he was doing these things to try and make her happy. And so, maybe he actually went out of his way to code the Beast to not kill and/or eat living things.

That was my point, maybe he was trying to win her over, get her to want to stay voluntarily.

edited 7th Mar '15 1:18:59 PM by Geoduck

Mm, well, we shouldn't forget his wife was there under duress. Also that there were probably reasons that shortly following his death Bill and Barry burned down the biological experimentation section of the town. But it's true that the Beast's appetite could have been a result of inadequate planning rather than malice, in which case he could have built it not to be much of a killer.

...Although I just remembered that it appears to have pulled a number of monks in along with their armor, and expressed considerable enthusiasm for doing so to Tweedle. And, you know, sure Tweedle's awful, but the train doesn't know that.

Kidnapping wives is standard Heterodyne courtship behavior. Potential wives are expected to attack Mechanicsburg with armies to get the Heterodyne's attention.

If it was anyone else writing this, I'd say Agatha anticipated this and Vi and perhaps the bears are off-panel doing their thing. Also the magnetic spark in the giant suit of armor whose name I can't remember could have been told to pretend to be helpless. After all the trouble he gave Agatha at the beginning, this helplessness is suspicious.

Now I'm expecting Vi to step up in her non-metallic underwear and save the day...

As long as she's in her underwear, I approve.

^ I was wondering how long until something like that was going to get posted.

... before I did it myself, anyway.

Oh man, have you guys been following the Legendary Showdown Kickstarter?

I'm not interested in the game, but I want those magnets... Like, the all-consuming, unbearable yearning of a twelve year old...

And that Moxana coin is really cool, too. You can wear it as a pendant! Nerdy jewelry that my children can't ruin EEEEEE Eeeeee... I can't decide!

Ooh, nice magnets! For some reason I'm really amused that everyone is in action poses except Tarvek — who apparently decided to stop and think about this

I noticed that, too. :D

Also, he seems to have borrowed Tweedle's coat and eyebrows.